File This Under “Why History?” →

Michael Wright, in a May issue of his excellent, inspired weekly letter Still Life:

Art and architecture hold symbolic and social weight. They don't just show us stuff from the past—they make claims on our choices in the present. A gilded film theater made to look like a cathedral from the past makes a religious claim on us now.

Likewise, sculptures of confederate generals make claims about how a state government envisions its relationship to history and the people it governs. All of these artists (and others like Kehinde Wiley and Titus Kaphar and Glen Ligon) can help us see how easy it is to construct histories that rarely tell the whole story. And if we learn to look past the gilded facade, we can begin to see larger histories we share.

Through a series of life circumstances and opportunities I find myself every spring teaching Latin American history to a group of US American university students. My journey to appreciate history has been a long one, mostly taking place after college. I love the challenge inherent in posing the question “why history?” to my group as we experience art and history and how “they makes claims on our choices in the present.” I will definitely be pulling this back out next spring.

If you haven’t already, sign up to receive Still Life in your inbox every week, and be delighted with a weekly dose of poetry too:

[…]
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

—“Beannacht” by John O’Donohue